Well wishers,
families, friends, artists and art connoisseurs flooded the auditorium
as Shantala Arts Trust celebrated its silver jubilee in Bangalore with
a three-day dance festival from June 16 to 18. A variety of dance recitals
- Kathak, Odissi, Bharatanatyam and Jugalbandi - were held in the
current festival. Apart from regular training to students in Bharatanatyam,
Carnatic music, dance theory and nattuvangam, the trust conducts dance
festivals regularly, presents awards to senior artistes and holds workshops
for young aspirants.

The festival
was inaugurated at the Chowdaiah Memorial Hall by Mathoor Krishnamurthy
and presided by Mysore Subramanya. Vani Ganapathi gave a brief inaugural
program with an invocatory piece, a composition of Oothukadu, and a thillana.
A piece from Pasuram was followed by "Jaya Jaya Narayana" in ragamalika,
which had an attractive lilt. Instead of a varna, Vani chose a composition
of Oothukadu Venkatasubba Iyer. With its dramatic overtones, it was pleasing
with popular appeal. The concluding thillana was a fine composition of
GN Balasubramanian.

Prasanna Kasthuri
and Shila Mehta presented a Bharatanatyam and Kathak Jugalbandi. Prasanna,
who is also the founder of Shanthala Arts Academy, is originally from Bangalore
and at present is the director of Soorya Performing Arts, St Louis, USA.
Shila is a senior Kathak dancer from Mumbai. Prasanna and Shila opened
their Jugalbandi with 'Pushpanjali' and 'Sabhavandan' in which they also
offered prayer to Vishnu. Prasanna chose a Varna in the raga Natakuranji,
with Narasimha Avatara in the 'sanchari'. He performed with ease and aplomb.
Shila then took up the purely rhythmic part in Teen taal where she danced
to various permutations of rhythm and recitation of bols with footwork.
The duo chose a thumri and a devaranama and followed with a thillana.

Day 2

Venkatesha
Natya Mandira

Nupura

Two of the
city's oldest dance schools regaled the audiences with their captivating
dances. Venkatesha Natya Mandira, a well known dance school of Bangalore,
began the evening's performance. The students trained under Guru Radha
Shridhar performed with ease and the excellent group choreography made
for a lively performance. In "Mathe malaya dhwaja pandya sanjaathey," the
dancers demonstrated their technical and abhinaya finesse while performing
the story of Mahishasura Mardhini.

Lalitha Srinivasan's
Nupura dance group presented Lasyotsava, a story on the sculptures of Belur
temples of the Hoysala dynasty based on the poems of Kannada poet D V Gundappa.
The well trained dancers brought the sculptures to life, as the musicians
performed the tunes of the dance drama set almost 3 decades ago by the
Guru.

Day 3

Sri Chakra

Nrityagram
Dance Ensemble

The final day
began with an electrifying performance of ‘Sri Chakra’ by the Shanthala
Dance Ensemble. Led by Sushma Mohan, US returned dancer-choreographer,
the dancers explored the aavaranas or mandalas of the Sri Chakra. With
a description to each chakra and a variety of movement, Sri Chakra impressed
the audience with its spectacular group patterns and choreography.

The Nrityagram
dancers, who took over the stage next, mesmerized the audience with their
extremely chiseled body technique and sculpture like poses. Surupa Sen,
Bijayini Sathpathy and Pavithra Reddy proved that dance is indeed a Natya
Yoga.

Lalitha Srinivasan,
the gurus of Pulikeshi and Prasanna, was felicitated on this occasion.
Narsimhalu Vadavatti, President of the Karnataka Sangeetha Nrutya Academy,
who was the chief guest for the evening, lauded the efforts of the organizers
in putting up such a mega event.

Honoring
Guru Lalitha Srinivasan

The festival
was funded by the Department of Kannada and Culture, Soorya Performing
Arts, St.Louis, and private donors. When asked about the future plans of
the academy, Pulikeshi Kasturi, the artistic director and the curator of
the festival, exclaimed that he is eager to present a platform to as many
artists as possible in the coming years.